UK: MPs infuriate universities

Just as the British Parliament and universities were settling into their long summer break, an all-party select committee report published last Sunday roused MPs and academics from torpor. The committee, chaired by Liberal Democrat MP Phil Willis, accused universities of "defensive complacency" and called for "a change of culture at the top in higher education".

Among its 109 recommendations, the report says the Quality Assurance Agency, the watchdog responsible for monitoring standards, should be transformed or scrapped. The report, Students and Universities, by the Innovation, Universities and Skills Select Committee, has infuriated the higher education sector.

Diana Warwick, Chief Executive of the vice-chancellors' organisation, Universities UK, expressed "disappointment" at the negative picture being painted of the sector. Warwick said although it was vital to maintain standards, UUK rejected the idea of creating some super-quango or Ofsted-style Quality and Standards Agency.

"This seems to us a sledgehammer to crack a nut. For inspectors to judge content and level of achievement could logically lead to national exams based on a national curriculum, just as we have in schools. It has been recognised - internationally and by successive UK governments - that autonomy is key to a successful and responsive higher education system."

Dr Wendy Piatt, Director General of the Russell Group representing 20 major research intensive universities, was "dismayed and surprised by this outburst" as she said vice-chancellors had been involved in hours of discussion with MPs over the issues.

"It is also disappointing to see MPs trying to cram universities into one-size-fits-all solutions."

Million+, the group representing post-1994 institutions, also rejected the proposals to change the QAA. Pam Tatlow, its Chief Executive, said the agency was a "robust system" which had influenced parallel developments worldwide.

Along with UKK and the Russell Group, Tatlow supported some other recommendations in the report including those on widening participation and securing a better deal for part-time and mature students.

The University and College Union welcomed the recommendation to introduce a simple national bursary scheme for students which the union has been campaigning for. Sally Hunt, the union's General Secretary, also welcomed the report's call for a full review of university tuition fees.

"It is heartening that, at a time when a worryingly growing political consensus seems to be that the fees review (due later this year) will merely consider how much they should rise, the committee has highlighted the inequities that part-time and mature students face," Hunt said.

The report in particular highlighted "grade inflation": in 1996-97, 7.7% of undergraduates gained a First while in 2007-08, the percentage had almost doubled to 13.3%. During the same period, the percentage awarded upper seconds rose from 44% to 48%.

"We found no appetite whatsoever to investigate important questions such as the reasons for the steady increase in the proportion of first class and upper second class honours degrees over the past 15 years or the variation in study time by students taking the same subjects at different universities," noted the report.

MPs also found it unacceptable that vice-chancellors could not give a straightforward answer to the simple question of whether students obtaining first class honours degrees at different universities had attained the same intellectual standards. They said as long as there was a classification system, all degrees should be categorised consistently across all institutions.

MPs found no convincing evidence to prove the assertion that good quality research was essential for good teaching of undergraduates. They thought the key to the successful transformation of higher education in England in the next decade would be to move away from "a culture fixated on the most prestigious research-intensive universities to one where other models of study could thrive and excellence was recognised and rewarded for teaching supported by scholarship".

This is the valedictory report of the IUSS select committee as the Prime Minister recently reorganised Whitehall and placed responsibility for universities into the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills under Lord Mandelson.

Last weekend, the Conservatives pledged to publish data giving details of students' job prospects and salaries after graduation which should show how college choice affects lifetime earnings.

diane.spencer@uw-news.com